A Big Blue Mess
“Are you talking about the superfamous Fluffington from the Krunchies cat food commercials?” Nancy asked Yasmine.
Yasmine grinned. “The one and only.”
Nancy smiled at her father. No wonder he had said Bess would have a hard time getting an autograph from the star of the movie. The star of the movie was a cat!
“Fluffington is so awesome in the Krunchies commercials,” George piped up. “My favorite is the one where her kitty soccer team wins a tournament, and they get a huge trophy full of Krunchies.”
“Well, you can all meet Fluffington herself as soon as she’s done with her grooming session,” Yasmine said. “One of the groomers is combing and brushing her for her next scene. In the meantime, why don’t I introduce you to some of the humans on our set.”
“Sounds great,” Mr. Drew said.
Nancy noticed a big yellow cat dashing behind a potted plant. “That’s not Fluffington, is it?” she said, confused. “I thought Fluffington was white.”
“That cat is a stray who hangs out here sometimes,” Yasmine explained. “We call him Honey Mustard. He’s kind of unusual, because he has six toes on each paw.”
“That’s a lot of toes,” Bess said.
Yasmine proceeded to lead them around the studio. She introduced them to the actors who played Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell, followed by the actors who played the “alien” family, the Graysons. Pompom, a small silver poodle who was the doggie star of the show, was sitting on “Mrs. Grayson’s” lap.
Yasmine also introduced them to a young guy with curly black hair who was sitting in front of a fancy-looking computer. “This is Tucker Diaz, our CGI guy,” Yasmine said.
“What does CGI stand for?” Bess asked him.
“Computer generated imagery,” Tucker replied. “You girls see the movie Pigs in Space?”
“That was a totally awesome movie!” George said.
“Well, those pigs weren’t really pigs. They were images created by people like me on their computers,” Tucker said. “You know how your parents take home movies of you on their video cameras? Imagine if you could create a dinosaur on your computer and add it to one of your parents’ movies. It would look like you were hanging out with a dinosaur in your very own backyard, right? Well, that’s what I do.”
“Cool,” Bess said.
“For this movie, I’m creating a whole bunch of computer images of Fluffington and Pompom,” Tucker went on. “For example, there’s a scene where Fluffington goes flying through the air and crashes into a wall. Ouch! I’m creating a computer image of Fluffington flying and crashing so the real Fluffington doesn’t have to.” He added, “When you see the movie, you won’t be able to tell the difference between the real Fluffington and the computer generated Fluffington.”
“Wow,” Nancy said.
Tucker lowered his voice. “I’m trying to convince Mr. Banner to forget about Fluffington and Pompom altogether and use nothing but computer images of them. Animal actors are too unpredictable. Computers are way more reliable.” He patted the top of his computer, as though he were petting a cat.
“Tucker,” Yasmine said with a frown.
Nancy glanced at Yasmine, then at Tucker. She wondered why Yasmine seemed unhappy about what Tucker had just said.
Yasmine gestured to Mr. Drew and Hannah. “Why don’t we move on? Brett should be done with his call by now.”
“Terrific,” Mr. Drew said.
They all said good-bye to Tucker. Yasmine led them past two actors rehearsing a scene and over to a corner office. The door was closed.
Yasmine knocked. “Brett?” she called out.
The door opened. Brett Banner was tall, tanned, and bald. He was dressed in black jeans and a pink T-shirt with a cartoon picture of a chicken on it. He wore a fancy-looking gold watch on his wrist.
“Yes, yes, I’ll have to get back to you on that,” Mr. Banner said into a tiny cell phone. Then he snapped it shut and extended his hand to Mr. Drew. “Carson! It’s good of you to come all the way out to California. Who are these lovely people you brought along? Introduce me!”
Mr. Drew shook Mr. Banner’s hand. He introduced Hannah, Nancy, George, and Bess.
Mr. Banner smiled at the three girls. “How old are you? Twenty? Twenty-five?” he joked.
Nancy giggled. “We’re eight.”
“We’re in third grade,” Bess added.
“Third grade. Hmm, well.” Mr. Banner looked thoughtful. “It just so happens that we need three third-graders as extras for the movie. Do you know what extras are?”
“Like when my dad gives me extra whipped cream on my ice cream?” George said.
Mr. Banner nodded. “Yes! Extras are like extra actors in the movie, except they don’t have to act. Have you ever seen a scene in a movie where there’s a big crowd in the background?”
Bess nodded. “In Pigs in Space, there was a big crowd in the high school parking lot watching the pig spaceships land.”
“Exactly! All those people in that crowd were extras.” Mr. Banner added, “If it’s okay with all your parents, I could use three eight-year-old extras in The Aliens Next Door. What do you say?”
“Yes!” Nancy squealed. “Please, Dad, can we?”
Mr. Drew laughed. “Sounds like fun. George and Bess, I’ll give your parents a call and see if it’s okay with them.”
“Yay!” The three girls cheered.
Mr. Banner opened his mouth to say something. But he was interrupted by a loud, horrible screech.
Nancy spun around. “What was that?” she cried out as something went tearing past them.
It was a cat. Nancy recognized her; it was Fluffington! Except Fluffington wasn’t beautiful and fluffy and white, like she was in the Krunchies commercials. She was covered with blue paint!
